An officer fired at a naked St. Croix man as he drove a rental jeep at officers in Clifton Hill, police said Tuesday.
No one was hurt in the Monday morning incident that ended with 52-year-old Warren Freeman arrested — charged with attempted murder, assault, and interfering with an officer discharging their duties.
Police said Freeman’s brother called 911 asking for assistance with his mentally ill sibling, who had refused to wear clothing all weekend and was threatening neighbors with violence. Officers arrived to find Freeman sitting in the driver’s seat of an idling overdue rental car. Virgin Islands Police Department Officers and a Centerline Car Rental employee approached the vehicle at the rear of the house, but Freeman refused to get out, police said.
Freeman rolled up the window and reversed the vehicle down an embankment, hitting the police car, then “drove forward at a high rate of speed, thus using the vehicle as a weapon coming towards the officers and the Centerline Car Rental employee,” said VIPD spokesperson Glen Dratte. The officer shot at the vehicle.
The vehicle was forced to a stop, and Freeman was arrested. Bail was set at $100,000. Freeman was remanded to the John Bell Correctional Facility pending his advice of rights hearing, Dratte said.
